‘If we don’t like it, we’ll kill it. If we love it, we’ll marry it’: We were dreaming about ChatGPT thousands of years before it existed — here's how ancient myths shaped the AI we’re building today
LiteraturePhilosophyHistory
THE AI ANGLE
Being conceptualized and designed through ancient myths, folklore, and science fictionIn an interview discussing their book 'Myth-Made Machines', authors Dave Bradley and Kelly Vero trace the origins of artificial intelligence back thousands of years to Greek myths, Jewish folklore, and classic literature like Jonathan Swift's 'Gulliver's Travels'. They argue that these enduring cultural stories have not merely anticipated modern AI, but have actively shaped the vocabulary, expectations, and ethical frameworks of the engineers building systems like ChatGPT today.
THE TEACHING ANGLE
Students can examine whether fictional frameworks—such as Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics inspiring DeepMind's 'Robot Constitution'—provide sound philosophical guidance for real-world machine ethics or trap modern development in ancient narrative tropes.Read the original at techradar.com Generate teaching or study materials
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